Reese
I HUNG UP with Alexa and immediately dialed Hawk.
“It’s two a.m., you better have a damn good reason why you’re wakin’ me,” he growled.
I filled him in on everything Lex had told me.
“This is going to be tough,” Hawk said. “Burner phones can’t easily be traced, if at all, but I’ll put Booker on it.”
Booker was the VP of the Dogs of Fire, and in his previous life, had been an experienced hacker. He could find things and get into places even better than I could, which would help in this situation.
“I had trackers put in each of the phones,” I said. “Unless those scumbags physically crack Paisley’s phone open, they’ll never know it’s there, and will assume the phones are untraceable.”
“Shit, man, the FBI’s got you thinking like a cop now. What can I do to help?”
“Meet me at the compound,” I said. “I’ll call Ryder and have him bring some extra fire power.”
“What exactly are we walking into?”
“No clue,” I admitted. “But I want to be prepared for anything. This has to be kept between the three of us for now. Don’t let anyone see you leave your place and don’t ride your bike.”
“Understood,” Hawk replied.
“We’re going to get Paisley back by any means necessary, and we have to do it without the FBI or the local police involved. If they see us or the cops coming, they’ll kill her.”
“I get it, man. I’ll see you in a bit,” Hawk said.
I hung up and got dressed. I couldn’t waste any time. I grabbed my truck keys and headed out the door. My mind was foggy due to the late hour, but I needed to think of a plan, and fast. The tracker app on my phone showed me Paisley was being held in an industrial area of Gresham, right in the heart of Spiders territory, an area I was all too familiar with.
What the fuck is going on here?
The Russian Mob and the Rockford Spiders together in the same area? There was no way this could be a coincidence, but I had no idea what it all meant. I pulled into the Dog’s compound and called Alexa to give her a quick update before going inside.
“Did you find her?” she asked, her voice desperate.
“I have a pretty good idea where she is.”
“What can I do?”
“Just stay put, baby. I’m gonna get her and then I’ll call you. If you don’t hear from me, don’t freak out, okay?”
She sighed. “I trust you, honey. But be careful.”
“I will, baby. Talk to you soon.”
I hung up and walked into the building. Hawk and Booker met me in the back conference room.
“What’s the plan?” Ryder asked the moment I walked through the door.
“First, we have to zero in on exactly where Paisley is.” I handed my phone to Booker. “I need you to use the tracking app, and let me know exactly where she’s being held. The general coordinates are not enough. I need you to tell me the exact address, down to the room she’s in if possible. The Spiders have several buildings in that vicinity, so it could be any of them.”
“I’m on it.”
“Ryder, I need you to load up the van. We need shotguns, flash grenades, tear gas and masks for all of us. I have one more phone call to make. Wheels up in twenty.”
I walked into the hallway and dialed a number I hadn’t called in a while.
“Yeah?” the gruff voice answered.
“Frogger, it’s Reese.”
Frogger’s father was also an officer in the Rockford Spiders and we’d been recruits together. I got out and he didn’t. Nonetheless, he was a good guy and always had my back. I didn’t blame Frogger for staying in, as his father would have likely put him in the hospital, or worse, if he didn’t follow him into the family business. Still, I knew his loyalty to the club only ran so deep and I was betting that his loyalty to me was deeper. In fact, I was betting Paisley’s life on it.
“Reese? Is that really you? Fuck man, what time is it?”
“Can I still trust you?” I asked.
“What? Of course you can, man, what the fuck’s going on?”
“I mean it, Erik, can I trust you?”
He obviously knew I meant business and the sleep left his voice immediately. “What do you need?”
“I need information. I need to know if the Spiders are working with the Russian mob.”
“Shit man, what the fuck are you involved with?”
“Are they working together?” I snapped.
“Yeah, man, I think so. I’m not sure, but there have been a lot of dudes around with Russian accents. I just figured they were here for the girls, but I guess they could be mob guys.”
“What girls?” I asked.
“The club has been dealing in girls more and more over the past few years. Hookers, porn, web cams, whatever,” he explained. “These Russian guys always seem to have a hand in what’s going down when girls are involved, but no one has said shit to us about who they are.”
“What else?”
“What do you mean, what else?” he grumbled. “I dunno, man. I don’t know who these chicks are or where they came from any more than the last batch, or the group that went missing.”
“Missing?”
“Yeah, man. A bunch of girls escaped a while back and Prez’s been on the warpath to find them ever since.”
Rusty Kross was the Spider’s ruthless president and the main reason for the abbey’s high rate of occupancy. The other members of the “Nuns on the Run” program were in hiding from the Russians. Obviously, the Spider’s FBI mole had dug deeper than we thought and the girls were in more danger than ever. I was pretty sure they still didn’t know about the abbey, but would make sure we had more muscle there than just “Father Michael.”
“Do you know anything about a girl being held by the old clubhouse?”
“No, man, but like I said, they leave us out of that side of the business. We run dope and guns, and they take care of the girls along with Putin’s friends.”
I rubbed my forehead and paced the hallway. “If someone was being guarded at the old clubhouse, how many members, do you think, would be there?”
“These days? Shit, man with Rusty’s paranoia… if something went down he’d be ready for war.”
“That’s what I thought.”
“You’re not thinking of doing something stupid are you?” he challenged. “You almost got killed getting out, and the only reason you’re still alive is because your pops is dead. No one’s heard a peep from you, and your low profile has kept you off Rusty’s shit list. Well, until now. But if you come around and start shit, Rusty’ll publicly gut you just to prove a point.”
“I don’t doubt that for one second. Thanks, brother. Keep your head down.”
I hung up and headed back inside.
* * *
Alexa
Reese had kept his promise and called me to update me, but I still felt sick to my stomach. We’d been so careful! Paisley was protected, both at home and work, so who the hell got to her and how? I hated not having answers to these questions, but for now I was stuck trusting my man.
Which I did.
In theory.
I was never very good at sitting still and waiting for anything. Instant gratification was my middle name, and right now sucked.
A quiet knock came at my door and I opened it to find Sadie.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“Ryder’s orders. He wants me protected, so I’m here and Ollie’s with Scottie,” she said. “Feel like raiding the fridge with me?”
“I’d rather raid someone’s liquor cabinet.”
She giggled and whispered, “I know a place. C’mon, I’ll buy you a drink.”
“Lead the way, oh fallen one.”
We tiptoed into the sanctuary and found the wine stowed behind the altar, which we opened with the corkscrew sitting next to it. We sat up against the wall and took turns sipping from the bottle. I was surprised by the vintage and surmised someone around here had a taste for something a bit finer than you’d expect in church.
“Do you know what’s going on?” I asked.
“Only that Paisley’s been taken and Reese and Ryder are going to get her back,” Sadie said.
“That’s it?” I demanded.
“Yeah, Lex, that’s it.”
“Well, you’re of no use to me, then.”
She smiled. “Reese’ll fill you in when they get her.”
“If he doesn’t get himself killed,” I ground out.
Sadie gasped. “He’s not going to die, Lex.”
“Well, he better not… or I’ll end him.”
“Come on, Alexa, you’re a pretend nun. Pretend to have a little faith. Reese knows what he’s doing.”
I bit back tears. “I know. I just want to see him and I want to know Paisley’s okay.”
Sadie wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “You will before you know it.”
I nodded. “I hope so. I just don’t know if I’m strong enough for all of this.”
Sadie raised her head and sighed. “And I don’t know if I can do this, Lex.”
“Do what?”
“Drink stolen wine underneath Jesus.”
I looked up and forced back a laugh. We were sitting underneath the cross that displayed a very lifelike crucified messiah. “Would it help if I told you it’s really nice wine?”
“No, I think that makes it worse.”
“Um… let’s take this back to my room.”
She nodded and we both rose to our feet.
“I certainly hope there aren’t nuns in here drinking the blood of the Lord,” Father Michael growled as he walked through the door. “And I really hope there aren’t nuns drinking a certain priest’s 2007 Fontodi Flaccianello Sangiovese.”
Sadie gasped, but I just chuckled. “No nuns here… no priests either.”
He dropped his head back and laughed. “You got me there.”
Father Michael wasn’t really a priest. Michael wasn’t even his real name. I didn’t know what his real name was, but it wasn’t Michael. He was an undercover agent working for the FBI… for what purpose, I wasn’t sure, but Summer and I (along with Annie and Taylor, the other two material witnesses) had been “read-in” so to speak when we were brought here. Should we have issues, he was our go-between.
“Anything I can do for you ladies, I mean “sisters” tonight?”
“Do you have another bottle hidden somewhere?” I asked.
“There’s a reason I only kept one back there,” he said.
“So people like me can only steal one at a time?” I challenged.
“Something like that. Thanks to you I have to find a new hiding place.”
“It wasn’t a very good one anyway,” I challenged. “We found it, didn’t we? Plus, what if someone accidentally uses it on Sunday?”
“I figured I’d hide it in plain sight. Kind of like you good sisters.”
Michael let us take the wine and we headed to the kitchen, grabbed glasses, then headed back to my room to wait out the night. I wanted to tell Michael everything about Paisley’s abduction, but Sadie was right, I needed to trust Reese. Plus, the kidnappers had said not to contact law enforcement and I had already taken a big enough risk telling Reese.